Perceived stress: role and levels of demographics – a cross-sectional study

of textile industry employees

DOI: 10.35530/IT.071.02.1643

AHMAD AFTAB MUFTI NADEEM

HUSSAIN AMJAD SALEEM MUHAMMAD
MUGHAL MOHAMMAD AHRAM TAREQ

ABSTRACT – REZUMAT

Perceived stress: role and levels of demographics – a cross-sectional study of textile industry
employees
Work stress adversely affects individual and organizational performance. This paper aims at investigating the
perceived stress among the employees of textile industry employees and how the employees’ perceived stress level
(EPSL) is linked with different demographic variables. Data was collected from 1212 employees working in 23 export-
based textile organizations using primarily Sheldon Cohen’s PSS-10. Descriptive analysis, t-tests, and ANOVA-tests
were performed to achieve the objectives of the study. 70% of the participants were found to be undergoing stress
amongst 21% were in the severe level of stress while 40% in higher level. The demographic variables: gender, marital
status, salary, position, job experience, family size, and size of the organization, were found to have significant effect
on the perceived stress levels. The study revealed numbers of variables (demographic) that directly or indirectly affect
the employees’ perceived stress level (EPSL). There is a need to understand the complexity of stress phenomenon
using a proactive approach, so that the stress management and interventions strategies can be designed to be
effective and implemented accordingly. Findings of this research support the research community in an attempt to
unfold complexity of stress phenomenon and study results can be utilized as a job design guideline for more
acceptable and viable stress management interventions.
Keywords: demographics, employees, PSS-10, perceived stress, textile

Stresul perceput: rolul și nivelurile demografice – un studiu transversal asupra angajaților

din industria textilă
Stresul de la locul de muncă afectează negativ performanțele individuale şi organizaționale. Acest articol are ca
obiectiv analiza stresului perceput în rândul angajaților din industria textilă şi modul în care nivelul de stres perceput al
angajaților (EPSL) este influențat de diferite variabile demografice. Datele au fost colectate de la 1212 angajați, care
lucrează în 23 de organizații în domeniul exportului de produse textile, folosind în principal indicatorul PSS-10 al lui
Sheldon Cohen. Analiza descriptivă, testele-t şi testele ANOVA au fost efectuate pentru a atinge obiectivele studiului.
S-a constatat că 70% dintre participanți suferă de stres, dintre care 21% au prezentat un nivel sever de stres, iar 40%
un nivel superior de stres. Variabilele demografice: sexul, starea civilă, salariul, funcţia, experiența la locul de muncă,
numărul de membri ai familiei şi mărimea organizației influențează semnificativ nivelurile de stres percepute. Studiul a
relevat un număr de variabile (demografice), care influențează direct sau indirect nivelul de stres perceput de către
angajați (EPSL). Este necesară înțelegerea complexității fenomenului de stres folosind o abordare proactivă, astfel
încât gestionarea stresului şi strategiile de intervenție să fie eficiente şi implementate în consecință. Concluziile acestei
cercetări susțin comunitatea de cercetare în încercarea de a analiza complexitatea fenomenului de stres, iar rezultatele
studiului pot fi utilizate ca ghid de proiectare a locului de muncă pentru intervenții viabile de gestionare a stresului.
Cuvinte-cheie: demografie, angajați, PSS-10, stresul perceput, textile

INTRODUCTION employment to about 30% of the 49 million workforce of

Background and objectives of the study
Work stress is a global issue. In Great Britain, in the year
2017–2018: work-related stress, anxiety or depression
were found as major causes for 44% of the work-related
ill-health cases where about 57% of the working days
were found to be lost because of health-related issues [1].
The textile industry is con- sidered as one of the largest
manufacturing indus- tries in Pakistan. The sector
supports 8.5% to the
gross domestic product (GDP) and is a source of
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the country. With fifty two percent of total exports, it
continues to be the mainstay of the country's exports [2].
Work stress has become a major issue for the
organizations where textile organizations have no
exemption. This research aims at investigating the
intensity of perceived stress among the employees of
textile industry organizations and how perceived stress is
linked with different demographic variables. The study is
a part of a big research project of which three of the
works have already been published [3–5], with novel
major parts presented in this paper.
Stress affects the human body adversely and results in
work-related musculoskeletal disorders (WMSDs) and
impacts individual and organizational work per- formance
negatively [6–8]. It results in reduced effi- ciency,
reduced capacity for work schedules, dimin- ished zeal or
work devotion, lack of creativity, absence of compassion
for the organization, lost commitment, self-esteem, and
increased occurrence of “perceived contract breach” [9–
12]. It can easily be concluded that stress has its effects
on all the func- tions being performed in an organization
and due deliberation ought to be given to manage it.
Literature review and research gap
Several studies have been performed to determine
individuals' perceived stress levels and their associa- tion
with the group demographics. The demographics of the
players and entrepreneurs were found to play a major role
in perceiving the impacts of stressors [13–14]. Women
were reported to be more stressful than men [4, 15–17].
Likewise, single employees have been found to be more
stressful than married [1]. Increases in the educational
level of the partici- pants, has been found associated with
a decrease in their perceived stress scores [1]. A study on
radiog- raphers revealed that 63% of the subjects
indicated high to severe levels of stress [16] whereas
another performed on textile workers yielded 28% as
stress- ful [18]. A positive correlation was found between
HRST (Human Resource in Science and Technology) and
innovative projects while it was not found between people
with tertiary education and innova- tive process [2].
Major emphasis in the earlier stress related studies has
been seen in sports, medical ser- vices, and employment
in a broad-spectrum besides some segments like teaching
[9, 19–21]. The stress literature on the textile industry
employees is very limited and the available literature does
not cover the sector as a whole [22] whereas this study
encom- passes the entire area of the textile industry. In
Pakistan textile and clothing sector, there is a need to
deploy efficient research and development activities [23].
The present study attempts to unfold work stress
phenomenon.
METHOD
Participants
In the study, 1212 personnel from 23 diverse organi-
zations were randomly selected for the data collec- tion.
The employees who were the subjects for this research
worked at all levels in the four major areas of the textile
sector, explicitly: fiber and fabric manu- facturing;
apparel manufacturing; socks manufactur- ing; and home
textiles. They were from different func- tioning areas of
the establishments (see table 1).
Survey
So as to reach the desired objectives of this cross-
sectional study, information was gathered through a
survey. Earlier, trained staffs talked to each partici- pant
about the rationale of the research and how to
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record the responses. Respondents were informed that the
data collection was anonymous and no spe- cific
information would be shared with anyone at any stage of
the research and the information would be used only for
research purposes.
Instrument
The instrument consisted of Cohen's Perceived Stress
Scale-10 (PSS-10) [24] and nine demograph- ic variables.
PSS-10 is one of the scales commonly used to record the
individuals' perceived stress lev- els. Since its
development in 1983, it has been a widely used by the
researchers to evaluate individu- als' and group stress
levels [25–26]. In the PSS-10 part of the instrument,
subjects answered on a 5-point scale which ranged from 0
(never) to 4 (always), 0 indicating No Stress and 4
indicating High Stress. The subjects were supposed to go
for any number of the scale as per their responses. The
responses to 10 questions were subsequently summed to
gener- ate the perceived stress score, where higher scores
indicate greater psychological stress. The internal
consistency of the PSS-10 part of the instrument was
checked through Cronbach's alpha and found reli- able
with the value of 0.74.
Statistical procedures
Descriptive analysis, independent sample t-test, and a
One-Way between subjects ANOVA using the SPSS 23.0
were deployed to measure the employ- ees' perceived
stress level (EPSL) and to identify the role of
demographics on it.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Perceived stress
Psychological stress has been shown to contribute to
poorer health practices, augmented disease risk, more
frequent health service consumption, and increased
mortality [30].
PSS scores
The total PSS score mean was 14.59 while it was
14.43 for male and 15.70 for female employees, table
1. A trend of decrease in stress appeared with an increase
in educational level excluding graduates and
postgraduates. Stress score was higher for work- ers
(15.48) and lower for supervisors (13.22). A simi- lar
trend was seen for job experience where mean PSS score
decreased with increase in job experience exclusive of
above 15 years.
Perceived stress levels
There are no cut-offs in the PSS scores, there are only
comparisons between people within the sample [27].
Thus, for the purpose, individuals' perceived stress scores
were interpreted as 0–7 = no stress, 8–11 = low stress,
12–15 = moderate stress, 16–20 = high stress, 21+ =
severe stress [4]. Subsequently, table 1, figures 1 and 2
show statistics of the employ- ees referring to their
perceived stress levels. In further
 Table 1

DEMOGRAPHICS, PERCEIVED STRESS SCALE SCORES AND EMPLOYEES CATEGORY (N=1212)

Employees category with respect
Frequency PSS score
to stress
Demographics Not stressful Stressful
Standard
No. Percentage Mean
deviation No. Percentage No. Percentage
Male 1059 87.4 14.43 5.43 325 30.7 734 69.3
Gender
Female 153 12.6 15.7 6.01 39 25.5 114 74.5
Married 903 74.5 14.24 5.41 298 33 605 67
Marital
Single 299 24.7 15.49 5.64 66 22.1 233 77.9
status
Others 10 0.8 19.6 6.88 0 0 10 100
HR 56 4.6 14.42 6.77 21 37.5 42 62.5
Accounts and
43 3.5 14.72 5.17 13 30 30 70
finance
Marketing and
Department 87 7.2 14.85 5.57 25 29 62 71
export
Production 909 75 14.69 5.45 263 29 646 71
Administration 42 3.5 13 5.69 16 38 26 62
Any other 75 6.2 14.05 5.35 26 35 49 65
< 5 years 388 32 15.03 5.39 88 22.7 300 77.3
Job 5-10 years 433 35.7 14.7 5.53 136 31.4 297 68.6
experience 11-15 years 234 19.3 13.55 5.18 85 36.3 149 63.7
> 15 years 157 13 14.78 6.11 55 35 102 65
worker 512 42.2 15.48 5.61 121 23.6 391 76.4
supervisor 445 36.7 13.22 5.27 180 40 265 60
Position
manager 241 19.9 15.24 5.22 58 24 183 76
executive 14 1.2 14.57 6.61 5 35.7 9 64.3
< 20K 585 48.3 15.07 5.71 156 26.7 429 73.3
Salary 20K – 50K 493 40.7 13.83 5.25 173 35 320 65
(monthly) in
50K – 100K 116 9.6 15.74 5.33 29 25 87 75
Pak Rupee
< 100K 18 1.5 12.5 4.27 6 50 12 50
two or less 95 7.8 15.77 5.73 24 25.3 71 74.7
three 133 11 14.19 5.83 47 35.3 86 64.7
four 329 27.1 13.68 5.31 115 35 214 65
Family size
five 323 26.7 14.38 5.41 105 32.5 218 67.5
six 155 12.8 15.53 5.08 28 18 127 82
seven or more 177 14.6 15.52 5.78 45 25.4 132 74.6
< Matriculation 175 14.4 16.51 5.5 38 21.7 137 78.3
Matriculate 361 29.8 14.22 5.57 113 31.3 248 68.7
Educational Intermediate/DAE 322 26.6 13.98 5.33 112 34.8 210 65.2
level
Graduate 267 22 14.38 5.33 78 29.2 189 70.8
Post graduate 87 7.2 15.24 5.78 23 26.4 64 73.6
Size of the Large 1053 86.9 14.2 5.54 340 33 688 67
organization Small 159 13.1 17.23 4.72 24 13 160 87
Overall 1212 100 14.59 5.52 364 30 848 70

analysis, No Stress and Low Stress were summed together
to correspond to Not Stressful while the scales: Moderate,
High, and Severe were combined as Stressful. It is
worrisome that only 364 (30%) were in the Not Stressful
group while a vast majority (around 70% of the sample
population) was Stressful. Figure 3 shows that amongst
the stressful subjects, a large group is in higher stress
levels.
Role of demographics on the perceived stress
In order to ascertain the role of demographics on the
individuals' perceived stress, independent sample t-tests
and One-way ANOVA tests between subjects were
deployed.
Independent sample t-test
Independent-sample t-tests were conducted to com- pare
perceived stress score of male and female

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 Fig. 1. Number and percentage of employees with respect to
perceived stress levels (N=1212)
employees, married and un-married employees, and
employees of SMEs and employees of large organi-
zations. There was a significant difference in the scores
for male (M = 14.43, SD = 5.43) and female (M =
15.70, SD = 6.01) employees; t(1210) = –2.65,
p = 0.008; married (M = 14.24, SD = 5.43) and single (M
= 15.49, SD = 5.64) employees; t(1200) = –3.41,
p = 0.001; and SME employees (M = 17.00, SD = 4.72)
and large organization (M = 14.16, SD = 5.54)
employees; t(1210) = –6.53, p = 0.000 (table 2). These
results suggest that gender, marital status, and size of the
organization do have an effect on the per- ceived stress
levels of the employees. Specifically, results suggest that
female employees, single employees, and SME
employees are more stressful. This is in line with the
Romanian textile and clothing industry where the
implementation of performance management practices
was found to be better in large organizations than SMEs
[28].
One-way ANOVA between subjects
One-way ANOVAs between subjects were conducted to
compare the role of employees' department, job
experience, position, salary, family size, and educa-
tional level on their perceived stress levels. It revealed
that working in different departments does not have a
significant effect on the employees' per- ceived stress
level (EPSL) (p<0.05) [F(5, 1206) = 0.955, p = 0.444]
whereas job experience signifi- cantly affects (p<0.05)
on EPSL [F(3, 1208)=3.71,
INDEPENDENT SAMPLES TESTS: GENDER, MARITAL STATUS, ORGANIZATION SIZE
Levene's test for
Variables equality of
variances
F Sig.
Gender and PSS score 2.94
Marital status and PSS score 0.084
Organization size and PSS score 5.555
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Fig. 2. Statistics of stressful employees
N=848
p = 0.011]. Likewise, job experience was found to have an
effect on EPSL. Specifically, the EPSL hav- ing job
experience less than five years is more and results show
that employees were more stressful at early stage of their
careers. Ones' position in an orga- nization is perceived as
an important attribute as the study revealed that position
significantly affects the EPSL (p<0.05) [F(3, 1208) =
15.12, p = 0.000], table 3.
The analysis revealed a significant effect (p<0.05) of
salary on EPSL [F(3, 1208) = 7.21, p = 0.000]. These
results suggest that the salary of employee has an effect
on EPSL. The EPSL in the lower salary cate- gory was
higher.
Likewise, the effect of family size was found signifi- cant
(p<0.05) [F(5, 1206) = 4.89, p = 0.000], table 3.
These results suggest that the family size of the employee
has an effect on EPSL. Specifically, EPSL with family
sizes, two or less, six and seven or more were higher. The
educational level has a significant impact on perceived
level of stress (p<0.05) [F(4, 1207) = 7.26, p = 0.000],
table 3. Employees with lower educational level are more
stressful.
In summary, the independent sample t-test and a one-way
between subjects ANOVA results indicate that the
demographics gender, marital status, job experience,
monthly salary, position, family size, edu- cational level
and the employees' organization size significantly affect
their perceived stress scores.
Table 2
t-test for equality of means
t df Sig. (2-tailed)
0.087 –2.655 1210 0.008
0.772 –3.412 1200 0.001
0.019 –6.528 1210 0
 Table 3

PSS SCORE – A ONE-WAY BETWEEN SUBJECTS ANOVA RESULTS

Demographics Sum of squares df Mean square F Sig.
between groups 145.512 5 29.102 0.955 0.444
Department
within groups 36740.576 1206 30.465
between groups 336.677 3 112.226 3.709 0.001
Job experience
within groups 36549.411 1208 30.256
between groups 1335.223 3 445.074 15.123 0.000
Position
within groups 35550.865 1208 29.430
between groups 648.671 3 216.224 7.208 0.000
Salary (monthly)
within groups 36237.418 1208 29.998
between groups 733.102 5 146.620 4.891 0.000
Family size
within groups 36152.986 1206 29.978
between groups 867.089 4 216.772 7.264 0.000
Educational level
within groups 36018.999 1207 29.842

CONCLUSION this study provide an opportunity to understand the

The research aimed at investigating the perceived stress
levels of the textile industry employees and how
perceived stress is linked to different demo- graphic
variables. The study revealed that about 70% of
participants were stressed at their jobs, though lev- els of
their stress were different. The demographic factors
gender, marital status, job experience, salary,
educational level, family size, and the organization
size have significant effects on the employees' per-
ceived stress levels. However, the demographic vari- able
department had no significant effect on stress. The
situation demands implementation of effective
interventions to protect the employees from unfavourable
impacts of the stress which in turn will enhance the
organizational performance. The find- ings of this work
further highlight that work stress is a complex
phenomenon which is influenced by a num- ber of
internal and external factors; so before devis- ing some
control or prevention strategies, it should be investigated
appropriately so that effectiveness of the interventions
might be enhanced. The findings of
complex nature of work stress phenomenon where the
relationship of different demographic variables with the
perceived stress have been studied in depth. Though the
findings of this research are linked to the textile sector
organizations; it provides a good insight about the
complexity of stress phenomenon and can be linked with
similar kind of working environments based on the nature
of work. The results of the study have been detailed but as
there has been no attempt to consider why things might be
as they are, there is little in the way of guidance for those
that want to use the results in the devising of prevention
strategies. So, it would have been useful to have had an
assess- ment of the likely causes of the difference between
men and women so that these causes might be removed
by the strategy.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The study was supported by the UET, Lahore, Pakistan under
grant Number ORIC/94-ASRB/138. Cooperation of industry in
data collection is highly acknowledged.

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Authors:

AHMAD AFTAB , HUSSAIN AMJAD , MUGHAL MOHAMMAD1, MUFTI NADEEM1,

1,2 1

SALEEM MUHAMMAD1, AHRAM TAREQ3

1
University of Engineering and Technology, Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering, Lahore,
Pakistan
2
Department of Electrical Engineering, NFC Institute of Engineering & Fertilizer Research (NFC IEFR), Faisalabad,
Pakistan
3
University of Central Florida, Institute for Advanced Systems Engineering (IASE), Orlando,
Florida, USA

Corresponding author:

AHMAD AFTAB
e-mail: aftabahmadrao@gmail.com

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